The In Action series. Teachers putting ed-research into practice.

The WalkThrus team – of me, Oliver Caviglioli and John Catt Ltd – is very excited to see our In Action publication series taking off.

After the Rosenshine’s Principles In Action proved popular, we felt that more researchers and their work could be given similar treatment to help teachers digest the ideas and apply them to their practice. We assembled a team of teacher-writers who have all engaged with the project with great enthusiasm.

The brief was simple: Explain the key ideas; describe how they apply in action in real classrooms across subjects and sectors; keep it short!

Although I am proud to be the editor of the series, my main input has been to assemble the team and provide some encouragement. All the ideas, the writing, the thinking.. that’s down to the authors. They’re doing an incredible job. In every case so far, the original researchers featured in the book have provided a degree of editorial support or broader encouragement to the authors – which is wonderful. I’m confident that we’ve done their work justice in these publications, making it easier for teachers to engage with the concepts and to apply them to their practice.

Instead of taking editors’ royalties for the series, we are donating 5% of all revenue from the sales to ResearchEd. This is in recognition of the work that the non-profit organisation does to bring researchers and teachers together. We are keen to support the organisation to continue into the future, doing the great work that it does.

This post will be updated as we publish each book. Here you will find links to the John Catt Bookshop to make a purchase, alongside a video interview where I talk to the authors about the ideas and the writing process.

Fiorella and Mayer’s Generative Learning In Action by Zoe and Mark Enser

Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory In Action by Oliver Lovell

Collins et al’s Cognitive Apprenticeship In Action Edited by John Tomsett

Coming Soon

The next titles in the series set for publication in Spring pictured here: (John’s books is out… we need a new poster!)

Collins et al’s Cognitive Apprentice In Action edited by John Tomsett: Each chapter is written by a specialist subject leader in his school, showing how the core ideas of cognitive apprenticeship take shape in their disciplines.

William and Leahy’s Formative Assessment Strategies In Action by Kate Jones. Kate has been in communication with Dylan Wiliam and, building on her superb work on retrieval practice, this book explores Wiliam and Leahy’s ‘five strategies’.

Shimamura’s MARGE ‘Whole Brain’ Model In Action by Nimish Lad. Nimish is an enthusiastic, knowledgable teacher and school leader with an excellent blog. He’s been liaising with Art Shimamura in writing this book, highlighting the ideas in one of our favourite research-informed papers: MARGE

And finally:

In the summer of 2021, there are three more titles on the way written by Sonia Thompson, Claire Stoneman and Blake Harvard. Details will be announced in due course.